Labor Day: Honoring the Hands and Minds That Build America

For most of us, Labor Day is that welcomed three-day weekend at the end of summer. There may be a cookout, a family gathering or travel, a little yard work—or maybe the rare pleasure of doing absolutely nothing for an afternoon.

This time of year also brings the start of another school year—a reminder that learning is often the first step toward discovering what we are good at or have an interest in learning more about, and how we might someday contribute. In classrooms, workshops, laboratories, and training programs, young people are developing the knowledge and skills that can lead to a future occupation, career, or perhaps even an invention or business of their own. Education helps prepare us not simply to find work, but to find ways to use our abilities to solve problems, create something useful, and make a difference.

That makes Labor Day a fitting time to think about something we don't always stop to appreciate: the value of work itself.

The first Labor Day celebration was held in New York City in 1882, at a time when many American workers faced long hours and difficult working conditions. The idea spread, and in 1894 President Grover Cleveland signed legislation making the first Monday in September a national holiday honoring workers.

More than 130 years later, work remains an important part of our lives—and not simply because it provides a paycheck.

There is satisfaction in completing something difficult. We know the feeling of standing back from a project and thinking, “I did that!” Whether it's building a house, growing a crop, caring for a patient, running a business, repairing a machine, or solving a problem nobody had figured out before, meaningful work gives us an opportunity to contribute.

We can see the results all around us. American ingenuity helped bring electric light into ordinary homes, connect people by telephone, build automobiles on a scale that made personal transportation available to millions, and developed agricultural machinery and technology that allowed farmers to produce far more food with less labor and land, saving American families from having to farm their own food and have time to pursue more education and other advancements!

Today that same spirit continues in computers, medical technology, communications, robotics, artificial intelligence and countless other fields.

None of those advances simply appeared. Behind them were people who imagined something better—and then went to work. They experimented, built prototypes, made mistakes, solved problems, invested money, started businesses and sometimes spent years turning an idea into something useful.

That combination of work, creativity and opportunity has been one of our great strengths. Innovation and industry has helped pull civilizations out of obscurity, and making things that were once expensive, difficult or even unimaginable, to something more Americans can afford and experience than ever before. The ability to travel across the world in a day, communicate to people in other countries, and the sharing of ideas using the internet are just a few of the things that were only dreamed of for thousands of years.

Though work isn't always exciting or instantly rewarding, and sometimes is a means to an end to be able to provide the basics for ourselves or our families that depend on us. But the importance of getting a good education, and opportunities to work, and supporting companies that help us to thrive through fair working conditions, pay and equal treatment.

There is dignity in creating, building, solving and contributing—and there is reason to be grateful for a country where an idea, combined with hard work and ingenuity, can still become something that improves all of our lives.

So enjoy the barbecue and the extra day off. But on Labor Day, let's also celebrate what people can accomplish when they roll up their sleeves and get to work.

There is still plenty to be done. And maybe that's something worth celebrating, too.